


Dark-Winged Death

by Kibbers



Series: Christmas OTP Challenge [19]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Christmas Eve, Christmas Miracles, Gabe is Death, M/M, Sam is his assistant, Snow, Winter, death mentions, though no one actually dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-08 09:01:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5491454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kibbers/pseuds/Kibbers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabe is Death, Sam is his assistant. Gabe can't stomach taking people on Christmas Eve so they break the rules and do something a little different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dark-Winged Death

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this one's a bit weird. I know that. I'm prepared for a smaller response than my previous days. I'm thinking of making this into a full out, 20K fic and this was a little experiment as to whether the idea will work out/interest anyone so let me know if you like it? If mentions of death (though no one actually dies) bother you, don't hesitate to click away, I don't mind at all! Technically this is for Day 21: snowflake...enjoy!
> 
> Also, my tumblr's [ here ](www.kibberswrites.tumblr.com) so please drop by and let me know if you think I should continue this little AU or not!

“Last one okay, Sammy? Then we go home.”

“Alright, but this is the last one, you have to promise me. Sun’s almost up anyway.”

Gabe nodded and clasped hands with Sam at his side, their fingers tangled and cold, and he snapped them to the last location on the page he tucked into his pocket. The street was damp, snowflakes drifting down to the asphalt before melting into nothing, though the moon was bright overhead. Sam was squinting down the dark street, trying to find their target. But he could not be seen. Not yet. They stepped forward, Sam’s hand finding Gabe’s, while Gabe’s black cloak dragged against the road beneath him. His wings too were night blue and star speckled and, to anyone peering through the sleep-dark houses dotting the road with their Christmas tree lights just visible through their too-thin curtains, their eyes would pass right over Gabe and Sam. Even so, the streetlights flickered off as they passed, clouding them in the darkness they needed to get their job done.

The snowflakes fell and fell, though their heads and shoulders remained snow-free as they walked. The winter-dead rose bushes shriveled further into the ground, more fearful of Gabe and Sam than the suffocating coldness of the snow and winter. Gabe was dark-winged Death after all, but he was not here for the plants nor the roses nor the grass. Not on Christmas Eve.

Together they walked, Death and his assistant, through the snow street and the darkness until they came upon the gum-dotted metal bench on the outskirts of the playground, the plastic green slide covered in a thick blanket of snow. Across the street, a dog yelped, sensing Death, and he retreated to the glass doors of his home, pressing his back against it. He would try to protect his people, though he needn’t have been worrying. Death was on a special mission tonight.

“This him?” Sam asked, hovering above the man curled on the bench. White hair poked through the gray beanie on his head, too thin t-shirt barely covering his torso. His ribs were visible through the thing, all bone and malnutrition. The man was curled in a ball, arms around his knees and shivering visibly. Gabe nodded. This was him all right. Number ten on the list.

“You sure about this?” Sam asked again. He’d asked each time, just before they broke the rules again.

“We’ve already broken the rules, might as well keep going. What’s a tenth if we’ve already done it nine times?”

Sam shrugged. “Guess so. You’re taking the blame though. Remember what the punishment was last time?”

“Of course, Sammy. But I’m a big boy, I can handle it. Remember, I’m the boss,” He attempted a stern face at Sam, but Sam just smiled and pressed a snow-cold kiss to the corner of Gabe’s mouth.

“Sure, bossman, whatever you say.”

Gabe rolled his eyes, though a smile crept over his face. He pulled Sam in for another kiss, the stars twinkling but silent above as the cloud-cover passed the town in its lazy drifting slowness. Sam smiled against his lips before pulling away. They had to finish before the sun came. Sunlight was their time to sleep, time to be together, time to be alone. Sunlight was theirs and while Sam loved what they were doing, tonight especially, he still wanted to spend Christmas with Gabe and Gabe alone, not this cloaked and coldly glitteringly beautiful version of him.

Gabe grinned, eyes full of dancing starlight, and he stole one more kiss before letting his hands fall to his sides from where they were tangled in the cotton neckline of Sam’s black t-shirt. Snowflakes dusted the man on the bench, though when Gabe’s hand hovered over him, they melted instantly. Even snowflakes could die it seemed. Sam pulled a blanket from the black sack slung across his shoulders and laid it gently over the man, careful not to touch his skin. The slightest brush and the man would no longer be. They had to be careful.

Gabe bent over the man’s boots, scuffed and sitting below the bench, fallen over from when the man had kicked them off hours before. Gabe slipped a few bills into the right shoe, some food they’d gathered into the other. Granola bars and water and the like. Gabe glanced up, Sam having finished laying out blankets and a new coat and waiting, and he pulled out his final touch. A rubber duck, shiny and new. He laid it at the man’s feet and chuckled, picturing the man’s confusion in the morning. Sam held out his hand and they started their lazy stroll back up the street, lights coming back to life behind them.

“Really, Gabe? The duck thing?”

“Hey, I’m breaking rules for these people, might as well have a little fun with them too.”

Sam shook his head at Gabe, but squeezed his hand. “We did good tonight.”

“Yeah, we did,” Gabe said smiling. “Now let’s go home.”

Truth was, the ten people they visited today were supposed to die, name’s in bold red on Gabe’s paper. But it was Christmas Eve and Gabe couldn’t have that, not with Sam beside him, teaching him what it meant to be loved. Instead, they’d broken the rules, stolen some supplies and helped these people through the holidays, or at least the night. Gabe would have a scolding waiting for him tomorrow, but that was tomorrow. And it wouldn’t be his first.

Sam and Gabe went home and became Sam and Gabe again, normal and together, no longer bringers of death. They drank hot chocolate by the fire, opened gifts together at the same time the people on the street awoke and did just the same. Outside their windows, the flowers uncurled from the ground and bloomed, bright pops of color through the snowfall, just on that street, just for one day. Death had spared them and this is how they showed their thanks.

“Merry Christmas Sammy,” Gabe whispered. They’d come back to the street in the daylight, dressed like civilians in Christmas sweaters and scarves, gloves on their fingers just in case. Gabe took in the flowers, oddly bright reds and oranges and yellows against the white of the snow. He watched as people came out to get the mail, to load their car, to breath in the fresh air and delighted at the Christmas miracle, as small as it may be.

“Merry Christmas Gabe.” Sam pressed a kiss to his forehead with a smile. Their life was far from normal, but Sam loved it all the same.


End file.
